By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | Gwinnett was booming along nicely in 2005 and 2006. Plans were underway to expand the Gwinnett Civic Center and its environs.
The recent recession cut expansion plans short. Finally, in 2015, we’re starting to see some movement for new facilities around this area that is more-and-more the heartbeat of the county.
Right now dirt is being moved for an Embassy Suites hotel of 165 rooms at Satellite Boulevard at the entrance to the Performing Arts Center. Meanwhile, diagonally across the intersection with Sugarloaf Parkway, another hotel, a Marriott Courtyard, is well under construction and expected to open in March 2016. These hotels are long overdue, because of need of hotel space near the Arena and Civic Center.
Yet the big news from Gwinnett’s Convention and Business Bureau is that a new full-service Marriott Hotel is finally to be built, after years of talking, connecting the Civic Center and the Arena. This hotel is expected to consist of 290 rooms, in 12 stories, and include a major restaurant, pool, spa, room service and other top-flight amenities. No doubt, with all the many people coming to events booked near this location, it’ll be a solid business investment.
But, there’s more. The Bureau is working on a master plan for a major revitalization of the entire acreage from the southwest corner of Satellite at Sugarloaf, all the way to the back of the parking lots of the Arena.
- First, the Civic Center will be expanded from its 84,500 to 150,000 square feet.
- Parking decks are anticipated on current open parking lots. Some 5,000 parking will be replaced by decks, and possibly additional spaces will be built.
- An “entertainment zone” is envisioned for the main thoroughfare from the Arts Center to the Arena, with restaurants, coffee shop, and other retail outlets.
- On the current Arena parking spaces, a public-private venture, a live-work-play area, is envisioned to add housing and office buildings, including several multi-story buildings.
- The current lake on the property will be mucked out and enlarged, giving a new and much larger amenity to the scene.
Williams
Remember that long walkway from the street to the Civic Center? On this site, the Center will get a new entrance, making its entrance convenient to the street. Anticipated in this facility will be additional office space for the center.
When will all this happen? Some of the work is already underway. Anticipation is that work will begin on the convention center Marriott in early 2016, and opening of the hotel in early 2018.
Preston Williams, chairman of the Bureau, says that their priorities are expansion of the Civic Center, and consideration of up to at least three new entrances into the overall site. Prior to discussions with public-private developers for the land where the Arena parking is now, work must be completed on one or more parking decks to replace those spaces.
Williams adds: “We will be welcoming proposals, but so far, we are not quite ready for them yet. We’re working on our priorities now before we accept ideas. We’ve got good support from people in the area, and feel that the county officials recognize the need to protect the investment they have made in the area, and recognize what the area needs to become in the future. It’s just a matter of how we will get there.”
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